Saturday, February 11, 2012

Twilight aka a movie and book I’ve never read. Not a single one in the series. Shocking, I know. I’ve seen a sliver here and there on tv I think, but never more than a few minutes.

So, when I had the chance to do a roundtable discussion with Chaske Spencer, I thought, “um, ok, why not? not sure what I’ll ask him since I have no clue about the movies or his role, but what a fun opportunity!”

The first question was about how he deals with the craze of the Twilight series. Chaske goes on long breaks and lies low: camping and road tripping. Now that’s what made him seem so down to earth. He likes to disconnect from his job.

My question was about him being one of the older cast members. He and the other older cast members have been around long enough to see things come and go. “Twilight will end.” But I also wanted to find out about his physical shape because he’s one of the werewolves, meaning he spent most of his time shirtless. He said he ate a lot of carbs and did power lifting to make himself larger. He wasn’t looking to be cut like the other guys, just bigger. He had to be consistent and disciplined to keep that shape.

Now the next question was about how his Native American history played into his character of Sam. What Chaske liked about Twilight was that it’s not your stereotypical Native roll and he didn’t “have to play a character designed by Hollywood to play Native American as they saw it.” I had to agree that they were exposed to a generation that doesn’t see them that way. How much do you love that?

It was good to hear that he turns down a lot of roles that would stereotype him. He can’t go back once he’s moved forward.

Life after Twilight is the next question and what roles is he going into. He wants to do the roles that scare him, that he thinks he can’t do. What a great answer! He really appreciates the actors who challenge themselves. I was surprised to hear he said he had nothing in common with Sam.

I loved the answer to the next question. It shows how much thought goes into creating the nuances of Sam. Chaske said he wanted Sam to be contained and Chaske is a pretty animated guy. In Breaking Dawn he said he lets go a little bit when Bella dies. I had no clue that so much went into this!

Then my last question was about any actors or actresses he’d really like to work with (lame I know, but I’m not a journalist)! He mentioned Sam Rockwell, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mila Jovovich, Jeff Bridges, and Kate Winslet. It was clear he wanted to work with people who like to think out of the box, people who aren’t afraid to stretch themselves.

Right now a couple of the films he’s working on are in post production, so I’m excited to see what’s next. Chaske shared about a couple of the characters and they sound intriguing!

BREAKING DAWN- PART 1 will be released on DVD at Midnight on Friday, February 11.

Great interview! Glad to see I'm not the only one that has never seen or read any of the books. I think you had a lot of things that other people would have not thought to ask. Great think outside of the box.